This is a class blog run by Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and her students in the course "Telenovelas, Culture & Society" at the University of Georgia during Fall 2015

Friday, November 6, 2015

Yo No Creo En Los Hombres on Twitter

After working on the consumption presentations, I found
myself even more intrigued with social media and how it affects consumption of
particular telenovelas. My telenovela, Yo
no creo en los hombres, aired in 2014 so it is very recent and has sparked
a lot of discussion on a variety of social media platforms. Social media
provides an opportunity for telenovela viewers to discuss, contemplate, argue
and comment on telenovelas. It also gives the networks and production companies
an opportunity to interact with their fans as well, giving them a chance to
respond to comments and instigate discussions.

As my consumption presentation group quickly found out, Yo no creo en los hombres does in fact
fall into the “Rosa” category; however, it also breaks the mold a little bit by
having an atypical ending to the love story as well as the inclusion of more
relevant topics and social issues. As a result, the “Rosa” aspects of the
telenovela definitely draw viewers in and the realistic part of the telenovela
encourages viewers to discuss social issues that relate to current cultural
attitudes.

Below I have pulled several screenshots of tweets that I
found on Twitter. They are fairly recent; however, they illustrate the variety
of conversations going on about the airing of Yo no creo en los hombres. I have chosen to focus on tweets
because I think it’s a very interesting platform, one that has really taken off
in recent years. Blogs are also a major platform for writing lengthier comments
that facilitate more complex debates.

In some of the other groups’ consumption presentations, I
noticed that Twitter typically served as a quick way for viewers to post an
opinion about a love story or post a photo of an attractive character. Often,
the posts were very superficial. However, I have found that Yo no creo en los hombres is a perfect
balance of a telenovela rosa and one that is both realistic and
relatable. People enjoy posting their thoughts on social media and below I am
going to discuss a few different themes that I noticed on Twitter.

1.Villains

As one of the consumption teams
noted, villains are special characters as they intrigue viewers for many
reasons. First, people may find their secret desires lived out in the
fictitious lives of the villains. And second, people love to hate villains. In Yo no creo en los hombres, it is clear
that Josefa has taken over one of the main antagonist roles and people love her
for it.

2.Atypical love story

Yo no creo en los hombres falls under the telenovela rosa category
due to its central love story. However, there are many ways that the telenovela
maintains a very realistic and relatable attitude throughout as well, making it
even more appealing to viewers. In this particular love story, there is a
happily ever after, which is a characteristic attributed to typical rosa
stories. However, the happily ever after story has a more realistic ending,
with the couple having to overcome the major challenge of María Dolores being
in jail.

3.Telenovela Rosa – Love triangles

Love triangles are normally
present in telenovela rosas and in Yo no
creo en los hombres, there are several. Viewers enjoy love triangles because
they are complex and they can get emotionally invested in the people involved.
From this tweet, you can see how love triangles keep viewers interested in the
story, wanting to watch more and more.

4.Domestic abuse and harassment

Finally, domestic abuse is an
issue that Yo no creo en los hombres tosses
around in several of the plotlines and among specific characters. For example,
María Dolores works at a sewing shop under a man named Jacinto who frequently harasses
her. She ends up having to stand up for herself by going to a lawyer, an act
that many female viewers of the telenovela were proud of.

Overall, I thought each of these
tweets was interesting as each one highlights a unique element of the
telenovela that viewers consume. Whether it’s the crazy villain or the issue of
domestic violence, viewers are consuming these themes and voicing their
opinions on social media.

2 comments:

The relations between social media and overall media consumption is very interesting. Even outside of the realm of telenovelas, social media has a HUGE impact on what we watch and read—so much so that it can be somewhat difficult to fathom a world prior to the fact!

I love that you point out how the writer used the Rosa aspects of the telenovela to draw the audience in, because as we've seen, the love stories definitely do that. But then they also use social issues and political aspects to make statements that they believe are important to discuss. I think that telenovelas are an incredible medium across the globe for exactly this reason. People love the drama and the love stories so much. I believe that society has evolved enough, though, that we will also appreciate stances in telenovelas for specific social issues.